Klondike Gold Rush - End of The Gold Rush

End of The Gold Rush

By 1899 telegraphy stretched from Skagway to Dawson, allowing instant international contact. In 1898, the White Pass and Yukon Route railway began to be built between Skagway and the head of navigation on the Yukon; 35,000 men and tons of explosives were used for the construction. When it was completed in 1900, the Chilkoot trail and its tramways were obsolete. Despite these improvements in communication and transport the rush faltered from 1898 on. It began in summer 1898 where many of the prospectors arriving in Dawson City found themselves unable to make a living and left for home. For those who stayed, the wages of casual work, depressed by the number of men, fell to $100 ($2,700) a month by 1899. The world's newspapers began to turn against the Klondike gold rush as well. "Ah, go to the Klondike!" became a popular phrase to express disgust with an idea. Unsold, Klondike-branded goods had to be disposed of at special rates in Seattle.

Another factor in the decline was the change in Dawson City, which had developed throughout 1898, metamorphosing from a ramshackle, if wealthy, boom town into a more sedate, conservative municipality. Modern luxuries were introduced, including the "zinc bath tubs and pianos, billiard tables, Brussels carpets in the hotel dining rooms, menus printed in French and invitational balls" noted by historian Kathryn Winslow. The visiting Senator Jerry Lynch likened the newly paved streets with their smartly dressed inhabitants to the Strand in London. It was no longer as attractive a location for many prospectors, used to a wilder way of living. Even the formerly lawless town of Skagway had become a stable and respectable community by 1899.

The final trigger, however, was the discovery of gold elsewhere in Canada and Alaska, prompting a new stampede, this time away from the Klondike. In August 1898 gold had been found at Atlin Lake at the head of the Yukon River, generating a flurry of interest, but during the winter of 1898–99 much larger quantities were found at Nome at the mouth of the Yukon. In 1899, a flood of prospectors from across the region left for Nome, 8,000 from Dawson alone during a single week in August. The Klondike gold rush was over.